Design and Trafficability Study of Flexible Wheel for Planetary Exploration Rover

To reduce sending costs, a flexible wheel configuration is proposed. The wheel is made of titanium alloy （Ti-6Al-4V） in consideration of the planetary environment factors （i. e. strong radiation, big temperature differences, high vacuum）, and mass constraint of launch vehicle. The advantages of the proposed wheel involves the potential for： ① small sending volume and mass, ② large deployed area and volume to reduce wheel loading, ③ a damping effect to smooth motion on rough terrain. To study the trafficability and tractive performance of the wheel concept, the drawbar pull and driven torque were calculated based on simplified model of terramechanics formulations. The results show that the wheel possesses sufficient drawbar pull to negotiate all types of soil stratums listed in this contribution.

Effect of wheelset flexibility on wheel–rail contact behavior and a specific coupling of wheel–rail contact to flexible wheelset

The fexibility of a train＇s wheelset can have a large effect on vehicle–track dynamic responses in the medium to high frequency range.To investigate the effects of wheelset bending and axial deformation of the wheel web,a specifi coupling of wheel–rail contact with a fexible wheelset is presented and integrated into a conventional vehicle–track dynamic system model.Both conventional and the proposed dynamic system models are used to carry out numerical analyses on the effects of wheelset bending and axial deformation of the wheel web on wheel–rail rolling contact behaviors.Excitations with various irregularities and speeds were considered.The irregularities included measured track irregularity and harmonic irregularities with two different wavelengths.The speeds ranged from 200 to400km/h.The results show that the proposed model can characterize the effects of fexible wheelset deformation on the wheel–rail rolling contact behavior very well.

Study on Running Performance of Flexible Wheels for Lunar Rovers： Relation between Stress Distribution of Flexible Wheel and Running Performance

On lunar exploration missions, the rovers which can move and explore directly are considered by various agency like NASA （National Aeronautics and Space Administration）, JAXA （Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency）, ESA （European Space Agency）. Lunar rovers are required to move on rough terrains such as craters and rear cliffs where it is scientifically very important to explore. However, there is a problem that the rovers have possibility of stack because of the lunar surface is covered with loose soil named Regolith. Therefore, this paper investigates a mechanism of kinetic behavior between the wheels of the exploration rovers and loose soil. And then, this paper proposed a flexible wheel to solve like that problems. The flexible wheel has the surface which can be changed flexibly toward rough terrain. Running experiments on loose soil which imitated regolith were carried out to observe the traversability of the flexible wheel using slip ratio. Traversality of flexible wheel was better than the circular rigid wheel. The authors believe that stress distribution is important. The stress distribution of the flexible wheels is horizontally long and stress value is small. However, the stress distribution can be changed by loaded more weight. Therefore, the relationship between the stress and the running performance was considered using this differential stress distribution. In experiments, the authors used the flexible wheel with simple structure （3 limbs）. From these considerations, the relationship between the stress of the flexible wheel and the running performance was described.

Numerical Prediction of Ride Comfort of Tracked Vehicle Equipped with Novel Flexible Road Wheels

Enhancing ride comfort has always constituted a crucial focus in the design and research of modern tracked vehicles,heavily reliant on the driving system's performance.While the road wheel is a key component of the driving system,traditional road wheels predominantly adopt a solid structure,exhibiting subpar adhesion performance and damping effects,thereby falling short of meeting the demands for high-speed,stable,and long-distance driving in tracked vehicles.Addressing this issue,this paper proposes a novel type of flexible road wheel(FRW)characterized by a catenary construction.The study investigates the ride comfort of tracked vehicles equipped with flexible road wheels by integrating finite element and vehicle dynamic.First,three-dimensional(3D)finite element(FE)models of both flexible and rigid road wheels are established,considering material and contact nonlinearities.These models are validated through a wheel radial loading test.Based on the validated FE model,the paper uncovers the relationship between load and radial deformation of the road wheel,forming the basis for a nonlinear mathematical model.Subsequently,a half-car model of a tracked vehicle with seven degrees of freedom is established using Newton's second law.A random road model,considering the track effect and employing white noise,is constructed.The study concludes by examining the ride comfort of tracked vehicles equipped with flexible and rigid road wheels under various speeds and road grades.The results demonstrate that,in comparison to the rigid road wheel(RRW),the flexible road wheel enhances the ride comfort of tracked vehicles on randomly uneven roads.This research provides a theoretical foundation for the implementation of flexible road wheels in tracked vehicles.

On the Polygonal Wear Evolution of Heavy-Haul Locomotive Wheels due to Wheel/Rail Flexibility and Its Mitigation Measures

Wheel polygonal wear can immensely worsen wheel/rail interactions and vibration performances of the train and track,and ultimately,lead to the shortening of service life of railway components.At present,wheel/rail medium-or high-frequency frictional interactions are perceived as an essential reason of the high-order polygonal wear of railway wheels,which are potentially resulted by the flexible deformations of the train/track system or other external excitations.In this work,the effect of wheel/rail flexibility on polygonal wear evolution of heavy-haul locomotive wheels is explored with aid of the long-term wheel polygonal wear evolution simulations,in which different flexible modeling of the heavy-haul wheel/rail coupled system is implemented.Further,the mitigation measures for the polygonal wear of heavy-haul locomotive wheels are discussed.The results point out that the evolution of polygonal wear of heavy-haul locomotive wheels can be veritably simulated with consideration of the flexible effect of both wheelset and rails.Execution of mixed-line operation of heavy-haul trains and application of multicut wheel re-profiling can effectively reduce the development of wheel polygonal wear.This research can provide a deep-going understanding of polygonal wear evolution mechanism of heavy-haul locomotive wheels and its mitigation measures.

Influence of structure and material on the vibration modal characteristics of novel combined flexible road wheel

Aiming at the independent development of tracked vehicles,it is urgent to improve its mobility,passability and ride comfort,a new type of flexible road wheel with a“wheel-hinge-hub”combined structure is proposed in this study.The vibration model characteristics of the flexible road wheel were studied by the combination of numerical simulation and experiments.The superelasticity of rubber is obtained through uniaxial tensile experiment of the material and a detail three-dimensional nolinear finite element model of the flexible road wheel is established through finite element software ABAQUS.The free vibration equation of the flexible road wheel is solved by Lanczos vector direct superposition method,and its predicted modes and natural frequencies are compared with experimental results,which verifies the accuracy and reliability of the established finite element model.On this basis,the effects of various key structural or material factors on the natural frequencies of the flexible road wheel are studied using orthogonal experimental design method.Besides,the vibration modal characteristics of the flexible road wheel are also compared with those of the rigid road wheel.The research results provide a theoretical basis for the vibration and noise reduction of flexible road wheel.